3 ETFs To Play For This Week's Earnings Onslaught

To say this week will be busy on the earnings front is an understatement. More than 460 companies deliver results and while there's always the possibility of positive surprises, data suggest investors may not want to bank on that.

“To date, 9% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported actual results for Q1 2020,” according to FactSet research. “In terms of earnings, the percentage of companies reporting actual EPS above estimates (66%) is below the five-year average. In aggregate, companies are reporting earnings that are 8.3% below the estimates, which is also below the five-year average.”

With that gloomy outlook in mind, here are some exchange-traded funds that could be in the earnings spotlight in significant fashion this week.

SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE)

The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF KRE, the largest ETF in the regional bank category, slumped 9% last week and that's not the kind of price action investors are looking for as dozens of KRE components step into the earnings fire this week.

The concern here is twofold. First, it's widely known that regional banks, more so than the large money center counterparts, are vulnerable to low interest rates — the exact scenario these banks are contending with today. That exposes investors rolling the dice with KRE into earnings to potentially negative updates on net interest margins.

Second, regional banks could easily extend a theme seen last week with the bigger money center names, that being setting aside more cash than expected to cover sour loans. Either or both of those scenarios could plague this ETF in the week ahead.

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U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS)

Starting with embattled United Airlines UAL, a broad swath of the marquee components in the U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS report earnings this week. JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU follows on Tuesday and then three more JETS components on Wednesday.

Southwest Airlines LUV reports on Thursday followed by American Airlines AAL on Friday. In other words, this is a busy reporting week for JETS holdings, but investors should not bet on good news.

As is widely known, airlines are back on the government dole and losing money because of the coronavirus. Wall Street knows the first-quarter numbers are going to be terrible, meaning any hope for earnings-related upside for JETS would need to be derived from less bad forecasts for the back half of 2020 and that's a hard to bet to make at this point.

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA)

Over 20% of the S&P 500 reports earnings this week, but it's going to be a busy five-day stretch for the Dow and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA as more than 20% of Dow stocks report this week.

Coca-Cola KO gets the ball rolling on Tuesday and the Intel INTC report on Thursday will be an important sentiment gauge.

The 3M MMM, also on Thursday, could be interesting as well, assuming the company provides an update on sales of products related to the coronavirus.